Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them Review

Magic Moments?

♦Tripwire sent its editor-in-chief JOEL MEADOWS complete with wand and mysterious suitcase to assess whether Harry Potter prequel film Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them keeps the magic alive or not…

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them
Director: David Yates
Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Colin Farrell, Dan Fogler
Some films are critic-proof. It doesn’t matter how much reviewers slate Transformers, James Bond or Star Wars. Cinemagoers will still vote with their wallets and see them in droves. Harry Potter can be added to that list. The eight films grossed $2.4bn worldwide so when Warner Bros. got the chance to return to Rowling’s world, they must have counted their blessings. Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is a prequel to Harry Potter, set in New York in 1926. Eddie Redmayne plays Newt Scamander, a wizard who visits the city after a world tour where he has been documenting strange beasts and creatures for his book, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Unfortunately a few of the beasts have escaped from his suitcase and they are wreaking havoc on the streets of the Big Apple. At the same time, New York is gripped by anti-witch fervour with Mary Lou (Samantha Morton) running a campaign to educate the great American public on the dangers of witches. To add to the mix, there is also a supernatural threat endangering the city, which high-ranking witch Graves (Colin Farrell) may or not be a part of. So Scamander is thrown into the deep end to try and recover his magical beasts while saving the city from this other threat.

For me, the Harry Potter films were entertaining but mostly forgettable (with the exception of The Prisoner of Azkaban, which felt like a proper film). Fantastic Beasts is competently directed and there are some moments that make you smile throughout it. You don’t need to be very conversant with Harry Potter to appreciate it either. But Redmayne appears to have taken his cues here from Doctor Who and modelled Newt after the man with the Tardis, which does begin to feel a little grating after a while. There is a voice cameo from none other than Ron Perlman as magical fence Gnarlack, which manages to lift the film. The rest of the cast aren’t bad: Waterston as Tina and her sister Queenie, played by Sudol, have a little chemistry with Scamander, and Fogler, who plays Kowalski, a normal man who falls into the orbit of the witches and wizards, offers a little light relief. Farrell as the sinister Graves does look the part too and throws a little spice into the mix. Yates and co do use the period setting with some panache though and 1920s New York with a twist is brought to life stylishly. The beasts are well-realised although one of the magical creatures feels a little too close to Guardians of The Galaxy’s mini Groot for comfort.

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them has already been predicted to make $200m in its opening worldwide weekend so it will be a huge hit. If you are a Harry Potter fan, you will see it regardless. And if you aren’t then you may see it anyway. It isn’t the worst Hollywood blockbuster this year and it passes two and a quarter hours pleasantly enough, although its running time does feel too long. Warner Bros. have already greenlit a number of sequels already and the end leaves it open for more big-screen adventures with Scamander. But as I said at the beginning, it doesn’t matter what I or any other critic says about it anyway.

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk

JOEL MEADOWS

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is out now in UK and US cinemas.